June 25, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
521 
PLANT HOUSES. 
AUamandas. —Large plants confined in pots will be flowering freely, 
and to keep them growing place a good layer of manure on the surface, 
and give liquid manure every time they need water. Repot all young 
plants that it is necessary to extend, and grow them fully exposed to the 
sun. These plants do well in loam, one-seventh of manure and sand. 
Shade only is needed for a few’ hours during the hottest part of the day 
when large quantities of flowers are expanded. The flowers of AUamandas 
are useful for dinner-table decorations or for shallow dishes when asso¬ 
ciated with Adiantum cuneatum. Plants that have been trained round 
four or five stakes and carefully hardened may be removed to the con¬ 
servatory. Stand them where cold draughts will not strike directly upon 
them. With careful treatment they will grow and flower for a long time 
in this structure. 
Bougainvillea glabra. —A very useful conservatory plant from th’s 
period of the year. It should not, however, be growm too warm when 
intended for these structures. If grown in heat harden the plants and 
remove them to cooler quarters for the flow’ers to expand. When deve¬ 
loped under cool conditions they are much brighter in colour, and last 
much longer than those in too much heat. Encourage young plants to 
make strong wood, w’hich if well ripened will flower freely another year. 
Clcrodendron Balfourianum. —Plants that are well grow’n in 6 and 
7-inch pots from cuttings rooted early in the season are, if trained 
round four or five stakes and brought into bloom about this period of the 
year, conspieuous in the conservatory. After they have flow’ered they 
can be grown for another year ; but the best method is to prepare some 
annually and convey those that have flowered to the rubbish heap, unless 
larger sized specimens are appreciated. Under these circumstances they 
may have larger pots. Young plants for next year are growing freely in 
C) and 7-inch pots. Train them under the roof of a light house exposed 
to the sun—in fact, any light w’arm position will suit them. 
Stejjlianotis floribunda. —Keep plants growing in pots by the aid of 
weak stimulants every time water is needed. If the surface is mulched 
with decayed manure the roots will soon take possession of it. As long as 
the plants can be kept growing they will continue flow’ering provided 
they are freely exposed to sun and air. Syringe frequently to keep the 
plants clean. Some attention is needed to train the shoots as they 
extend, or they soon become entangled and give endless trouble after¬ 
wards. Where practicable train the shoots up strings, for they are 
much more easily taken down than when they are secured to wires of a 
permanent nature. Where large plants are becoming too thick draw 
out large shoots and layer them into 10-inch pots. The process is a 
simple one, about one-third of the wood on the under side being removed 
and the shoot pegged into the soil and covered about an inch deep. At 
this season of the year they root quickly, and will soon fill the pots 
with roots. This is a quick method of obtaining large plants. 
Caladiums. —Plants that have been brought on steadily will, if 
carefully hardened, bear conservatory treatment from the present time 
without injury. A few well grown plants are most effective for group¬ 
ing purposes, aird any plants that will last fully three months in good 
condition deserve attention. Plants of this nature change the appear¬ 
ance of these structures during the summer months, and render them 
attractive when they w’ould not otherwise be so with the ordinary 
flow’ering plants. 
Acalypirns. —Few plants can be compared to these w’hen well grown. 
They deserve attention at the hands of those who produce plants for 
the market. They will bear brisk heat provided they are fully exposed 
to the sun, w’hen their foliage colours splendidly and the plants become 
Avoody. In the conservatory they are far superior to Coleuses if 
hardened for that structure. Plants stand in rooms for a long time 
wnthout injury. From the present time they can be grown satisfactorily 
in cold frames provided they are kept close and the frames closed early 
in the afternoon. 
Crotons. —Repot young Crotons as they need more root room, and 
grow them fully exposed to the sun. Use the syringe freely to keep 
dow’n thrips and red spider. Give soot water in a clear state to those 
that are rooting and growing freely, and if syringed occasionally bene¬ 
ficial results wall follow. Heads of plants that are groaving too tall 
may be re-rooted, also well coloured side shoots for use in small pots. 
WJM 
. i • - -* i . m . 
IS 
^ BBE-K^EPER. 
APIARIAN NOTES. 
The Weather. 
This continued dry and cold up till the 19th, but for some days 
past it has been warmer, the night temperatures being 36° and the 
day 68°. The morning of the 19;h was the first one that dew 
appeared, was calm and genial, without sunshine, as it has been for 
several days, but rain is needed. 
Foul Brood. 
It will be remembered by some of your readers that allusion 
was made in autumn to one of the most extensive apiaries, of 
upwards of a hundred hives, being affected with foul brood of a 
most virulent form, the owner being advised through the medium 
of a contemporary to destroy both bees and hives. Being loth 
to do so, he consulted me. My advice was taken, and in several- 
months after it was reported to me the bees appeared to be cured. 
The process of cure was what is known as the “ purgatorial ” one> 
described by “A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper,” but improved by 
myself to what may be termed a double refiniirg process. Thrr 
under-noted report now speaks for itself. Had the other advice 
been taken it would have entailed a loss of £150 to the proprietor, 
“ A. M. M.” 
“Just a line to inform you my foul broody hives, treated 
according to your instructions, are now quite healthy, and I thank, 
you for your invaluable and infallible cure, and which will soon be- 
the recognised remedy. Poor year for bees, a few hives still being 
fed. No swarms.” 
SUPERING. 
With the advent of summer weather supering will be the order 
of the day, and may be proceeded with at once, as there will not be 
much risk of chilling brood in warm weather. In Plane tree 
districts some supers were filled two weeks ago, although only, 
three miles from here. 
Hixts to Beginners—Swarming. 
Continuhig my remarks from page 499 I may say that 
the causes of swarm'ng are when the hive is crowded with bees- 
and filled with comb and the temperature high. At this stoge the 
queen is as it were crowded out ; the bees begin to raise royal cells,, 
weather continuing fine, in from five to eight days after a swarm 
issuer. But if rojal cells were raised when the queen regnant had 
relaxed laying through age or debility, generally speaking the 
swarm does not issue until a queen is hatched, and frequently old 
and young queens come off together ; but as a rule the former is 
doomed to destruction. 
Queens that have almost or wholly ceased laying is the cause of 
bees and queen leaving the hive en masse during the spring 
months, improperly termed “ hunger swarms.” Sometimes, but 
not often, bees and queen leave their hive when incipient foul 
brood is present, or some other fault of the hive or combs. Small 
nuclei, if formed with queens from strange hives, are also apt to 
leave, but not Avhen formed with a queen of their own raising. 
Large hives or extra room under certain conditions will net 
prevent a swarm issuing. We might as well attempt to turn the 
course of rivers upwards as try to prevent swarms when these 
conditions are reached. 
English and American bee-keepers speak of their fertile queens 
at the age of three and four yeai’s, but although they extend the- 
life of queens to that term, the former limit the life of the 
worker bees to forty-two days and the latter to thirty-five dajs. 
As is well known I find queens to be past their best at twelve 
months old (although I have had several live to six years old), and my 
workers live frequently to twelve and even fifteen months old. Some 
have asked, and others may, who is right ? My apiary is open fer 
inspection to prove what I say, and every other bee-keeper can 
easily put the thing to test in their own apiary. The fact is, if 
bees lived only forty-two or thirty-five days they would cease to be 
honey bees. My bees are like swarming, so I must attend to them, 
and in a future article I will describe how best to treat swarms^ 
and to control swarming.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
QUEEN-EXCLUDER ZINC. 
When making a few remarks on the use of the above I had no idea 
that “ A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper ” w’ould have thought it necessary to 
“ enter a protest against those remarks as being to a very great extent 
misleading and contrary to the previous teaching of this Journal.” 
What “ previous teaching ” he refers to I do not know. I am aware 
that it is often remarked that in the Journal of Horticulture your cor¬ 
respondent makes out he has a prior claim to any invention or improve¬ 
ment connected with apiculture. He now claims “that Mr. Abbott 
was not the first to use excluder zinc,” because he (‘-Lanarkshire”) 
“ made and sold excluders made of strong wire before the time indicated 
by Mr. Hooker.” I said “I think” Mr. Abbott was the first, &c., and 
I am quite ready to be put right in the matter if it was not so ; but I 
